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Lawmaker: "Metro Is An Embarrassment"

Metro's general manager fields more questions from Capitol Hill lawmakers Tuesday about the safety and reliability of the transit service -- and explains why Metro waited several weeks to share information about an alleged sex assault on a train. News4 Transportation Reporter Adam Tuss reports. (Published Tuesday, May 24, 2016)

Hicks was arrested by Metro Transit police hours after the incident. He was also identified last week in an ongoing sexual assault case in Montgomery County, police said.

The quick arrest is one reason that Metro said it did not disclose the rape earlier.

Hicks, of 16th Place in Northeast D.C., is being held without bond.

The suspect, John Prentice Hicks, 39, has been charged with first degree rape, first degree sexual offense and second degree assault after he forced a woman to perform oral sex on him as he brandished a knife aboard a redline train traveling toward Glenmont on April 12.

The grisly incident occurred only one day after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death at the Deanwood Station, and weeks after another teen was shot at the same station, which is along the Orange Line in Northeast D.C.

The victim in this case told police she was asleep in the middle section of a railcar as it approached “either the Fort Totten or Takoma stations” about 10 a.m. As the train continued, the man she identified as Hicks approached her and asked her questions such as, “Do you have a boyfriend?” and “Are you going to Glenmont?”Hicks then displayed a folding knife while the train was at the Forest Glen Station, the victim told police.

He then enveloped the woman in a “bearhug” and forced her to another part of the railcar where he attempted to have sex with her and forced her to perform oral sex all while the knife was in his hand, she told police. At some point, a struggle over the knife left the victim with a cut to her finger, she said.

The victim said she worried Hicks would kill her if she did not comply.

At the Glenmont station, Hicks exited the car but ordered the victim to stay where she was, she said. She told police she saw him re-enter the train on another railcar, and police said cameras appear to show him exiting the station and paying the fare with a SmartTrip card.

A SmartTrip card registered under Hicks’ name shows a charge at Glenmont that day, police said.

Hicks was also “positively identified” last week in an ongoing sexual assault case in Montgomery County, police said.